Bérénice, tragic drama in five acts by Jean Racine, performed in 1670 and published in 1671. It is loosely based upon events following the death of the Roman emperor Vespasian in the 1st century ce.

Bérénice is the story of a love triangle. Titus, who is to become the new emperor, and his friend Antiochus, king of Commagene, are both in love with Bérénice, the queen of Palestine. Events conspire against them, and at the play’s end the three go their separate ways.

Learn More in these related articles:

December 22, 1639 La Ferté-Milon, France April 21, 1699 Paris French dramatic poet and historiographer renowned for his mastery of French classical tragedy. His reputation rests on the plays he wrote between 1664 and 1691, notably Andromaque (first performed 1667, published 1668),...

...proportionate relationship. Racine declared the basis of the naturalistic effect in drama to be a strict adherence to the unities, which now seem the opposite of naturalistic. In his preface to Bérénice (1670), he asked what probability there could be when a multitude of things that would scarcely happen in several weeks are made to happen in a day. The illusion of...

Bérénice (performed 1670, published 1671) marks the decisive point in Racine’s theatrical career, for with this play he found a felicitous combination of elements that he would use, without radical alteration, for the rest of his secular tragedies: a love interest, a relatively uncomplicated plot, striking rhetorical passages, and a highly poetic use of time. In...